Man it's been some time, life sure has been busting balls these past years. But finally after on again/off again fly in fishing plans we got to fly out to the Albany River once again for a solid 7 days of off the grid, forget the world & pound fish adventure. Our destination was Lake Abazotikichuan, the Albany river runs through it & another river (The Opichuan) end its run at the bottom of the lake.
Main species are Walleye & Northern Pike but you can find Brook Trout in the Opichuan & Albany river if conditions are right. Plus with a portage you can access Opichuan Lake that has Lake Trout & Whitefish plus the whole system has many roughfish species of which Sturgeon is a must target. There are 2 camps on this lake & both have layed dormant for almost 20years. One camp is all but gone now, the other has been cobbled together and likely held together by the local Natives as a stopover on their travels, likely more of a winter spot. A fairly new outfitter had taken it upon himself to try and rejuvenate this long "lost" gem!
Now the tale I'm going to tell of the fishing may seem well exaggerated but can assure you the numbers aren't a lie. 7 day's, 4 guy's, 2 boats and if you are a Walleye fisherman this place will be your wet dream. We didn't keep count as that would have needed an extra person just to do that but if we boated less than 100 fish each per day, we would have thought something was wrong. The very first hour of us being on this lake, my partner & I hit the outflow of the Opichuan & our first 6 casts had double headers then I followed up with 17 consecutive fish on 18 casts. We spent 2 hours there and almost every cast netted fish.
The other 2 guys joined up and also pounded fish. It would also be something if these were just Walleye, but almost every fish was a quality fish. We averaged over the week with about 3lbs per fish, some smaller & larger of course but it was insane.
Pike fishing was also top notch. There was a ton of snot rockets to be sure but enough between 24-34" to make it fun. Quite a few in the 36-39" range & a few topping the 40", my new PB was a 41" 18-20lb'r caught on top water. Many big guys also lost in the fight or boatside.
My new PB
Above the lake in the Albany there are a series of rapids you can run to a place called Frenchman's Rapids which was the absolutely best Walleye fishing I've ever had. You had the current pushing against us & the wind from the other direction haystacking the water which either turned on the fish or it really didn't matter. Everyone at one point looked & each other and said "DONE!" as we had pulled in an insane amount of fish
We fished the Opichuan hoping for some Brookies but no dice. We also did the portage over to Opichuan Lake as a least one Native keeps the portage open for their trapline. It is a bit of a slug as this was low water season & many rock jams tried to stop us. Only one boat for us on the lake so 4 to a boat it was. Didn't find any Lakers, marked a lot of fish just no takers on this day.
Outflow of the Opichuan
Tight room but a blast
In the end, man we had an incredible adventure with truly some of, if not the BEST fishing I've ever experienced. A new PB pike and a new spot that we'll likely return to again. This Covid shit has been tough on everyone & this trip was a giant gasp of relief, fuck it felt great ( & long missed)
